Delegations to help tackle trade conflicts

BEIJING: China will organize more overseas trade and investment delegations this year, in a bid to boost its imports and alleviate trade conflicts, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a Chinese purchasing delegation sets out for Finland and Switzerland, while another group will go to South America next month, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman said.

A dock worker directs the loading of a container onto a truck at the Qianwan container terminal of Qingdao Port in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Agencies]
 
"China will take active measures in 2010 to expand its imports to achieve more balanced trade," said ministry spokesman Yao Jian.

Last year, the ministry organized 13 trade and investment delegations to 30 nations and regions.

The ministry spokesman's remarks came as China comes under increasing pressure to revalue its currency, with voices in the West accusing the nation of giving its exporters an unfair advantage by keeping the yuan at an artificially low level.

Over 130 members of the US Congress on Tuesday called on the Obama administration to label China a currency manipulator in its coming report on currency manipulation in mid-April.

But the ministry spokesman said that the nation's currency is "not the cause of the trade surplus" and China will "keep the exchange rate stable".

Thanks to the blistering growth of its exports, China was running a large trade surplus with its trade partner before the financial crisis. Due to weak overseas demand and preferential policies that the Chinese government rolled out after the outbreak of the crisis, the nation's imports outperformed exports during the past year.

In 2009, China's imports declined 11.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 16 percent fall in exports, and the surplus fell 34.2 percent.

During the January-February period, imports increased by 63.6 percent, 32.2 percentage points higher than exports, with the surplus decreasing 50.5 percent year-on-year.

Source: China Daily